Jury Deliberates Two Hours Before Reaching Verdict in Alleged Carjacking

Tallahassee, FL - Two rappers fought back tears as a jury cleared them of the most serious charges against them.

The jury deliberated for two hours before reaching its verdict.

It found Richard "Kat Fish Shawty" Gibson not guilty on all charges.

It found Bobby "Bobcat" Graham guilty of grand theft, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, resisting arrest and fleeing and eluding. He was cleared of the more serious charges of car jacking, armed robbery and kidnapping.

UPDATED 11.2.2012 7pm by Julie Montanaro

The jury has reached a verdict. We are waiting for it to be announced in court.

UPDATED 11.2.2012 6:45pm by Julie Montanaro

Two self described gangsta rappers are awaiting a verdict in their carjacking and robbery trial.

Both men took the stand in Tallahassee today and told the jury the victim concocted the whole story.

They say the videos they took - including one of the victim - are not what they seem.

Aspiring rappers Kat Fish Shawty and Bobcat took the gun waving videos with a camera as they cruised the streets of Tallahassee last October.

Each of the men took the stand Friday and said it was all for a rap video they were producing at a local studio.

"Those are prop guns. Those are not real weapons. That gun I had in my hand just now, it was a prop gun. Those guns don't fire. They don't hold bullets," Richard Gibson said emphatically.

Richard Gibson and Bobby Graham are on trial for carjacking, kidnapping and robbery.

The victim, Johnny Mobley, claims he never met either one of them before that day.

Yet Gibson and Graham both testified that Mobley was an investor in their music video. They claim he had been in the studio with them earlier in the week.

They say he started waffling on payment and they suggested Mobley made up the story after Graham stole five pounds of pot from him.

"You know, drugs might have disappeared, ain't go where they were 'posed to go, but nobody was bodily harmed. Nobody was kidnapped. None of that," Bobby Graham said.

The men claim the video that shows Mobley's Range Rover ... and Gibson and Mobley inside ... was shot days earlier.

Neither man could explain how Mobley's diamond ring wound up in Gibson's pocket.

The jury started deliberating at 5 o'clock. We'll keep you posted on a verdict.

UPDATED 11.2.2012 5pm

The jury is now deliberating.

Tallahassee, FL - November 2, 2012 - 12: 40pm - The defense has rested its case. Attorneys will make closing arguments after lunch and the jury will then begin deliberating.

Tallahassee, FL - November 2, 2012 - 12: 15pm - Graham says Mobley was an investor in the Kat Fish Shawty video. He says he recorded video of Gibson and Mobley in Mobley's SUV because he feared Mobley Fwd: wasn't going to pay for the studio time. He says he wanted some leverage against him.

Defendant Bobby Graham is on the stand now.He says he is a rapper who shoots videos and specializes in gangsta rap. He too says the guns are not real.

Tallahassee, FL - November 2, 2012 - 11:19pm - The state has rested its case. One of the defendants, Richard Gibson, is now on the stand. He claims that the footage that shows him and Bobby Graham with guns in a car was all part of a rap and comedy video he was filming in Tallahassee.

Gibson says the guns are prop guns, not real ones. Gibson says the video that shows him in the victims Range Rover was taken days before the alleged car jacking. He claims the victim, Johnny Mobley, was an investor in the video. Mobley denies knowing Gibson at all.

Tallahassee, FL - November 1, 2012 - Shocking videos played out on the big screen in a Tallahassee courtroom this afternoon as two men stood trial for kidnapping and robbery.

A jury will soon be asked to decide if those videos were fodder for a rap video or proof of a crime.

"He put a pistol in my face and said give it up," victim Johnny Mobley said. "At that time the other guy that was with him in the car, in the other car, got out of the car, jumped in the back seat, put a pistol to my head and told me give it up."

Johnny Mobley says he came to FAMU homecoming last fall and brought five pounds of pot to sell. He says he soon found himself looking down the barrell of not one, but two guns.

Mobley says Richard Gibson and Bobby Graham are the men who kidnapped him, stole his jewelry, cash and drugs.

Prosecutors say Gibson and Graham made the mistake of recording part of that spree on their cell phones.

One clip appears to show Graham following behind Mobley's black Range Rover. Another clip appears to show Gibson inside that Range Rover and Mobley with his head down.

"I want to see his face," the man taking the video says. Prosecutors say it was Graham talking.

"No man, none of that," Gibson says.

Another video clip from their phones shows a masked man waving two guns and then showing off a clip of ammunition.

Another clip shows them rapping.

Defense attorneys say the men are rap musicians better known as "Kat Fish Shawty" and "Bobcat".

Those recordings are part of their act, they say, not proof of a crime.

Testimony will resume tomorrow and both of the men are expected to testify.

He says he came to Tallahassee for FAMU homecoming and brought five pounds of pot with him to sell. He says he stashed it at an abandoned apartment near campus.

Mobley says he went to meet a guy he just met to sell him some pot, when the man pulled a gun on him. A second man got in the back seat and put a gun to his head.

He says the stole his jewelry and 700 dollars in cash and forced him to drive to the spot where he had stashed the drugs.

He says one man stayed in the car and another followed him in a burgundy car.

He identified both Graham and Gibson in court as the men who held him up, but on cross examination, admitted the day after the carjacking he picked someone else out of a line up.

Tallahassee, FL - 1:27 pm - Lisa Daws says on October 9th she went to a home on Pecan Lane to buy a vacuum cleaner advertised on Craigslist.

Daws says she was sitting in the front seat of her truck, still in the driveway, when a man rushed up to the window and said he needed a ride. Daws says she was about to say no, when another man jumped in the back of her pick up and started shouting "go, go, go."

Daws says the men were shouting directions at her and ordering her to go right or left, and started pushing 20 dollar bills through the little sliding window.

An officer in the area spotted a man peeking over the top of the truck, thought it looked odd and made a u-turn.

Daws testified the men jumped out of her truck near Gloria Drive and one of them thanked her as he ran away.

Daws says she couldn't identify either of the men and says she never saw either one of them with a gun.

Tallahassee, FL - November 1, 2012 - 12:28 pm - Tallahassee Police Officer Robert Wyche pulled over two men in a burgundy Ford soon after the victim reported the carjacking.

Wyche pulled them over near Hartsfield Road and Capital Circle. He says he ordered the driver to keep his hands on the wheel and as he waited for back up, the car sped off.

Wyche says he got permission to pursue the car down Hartsfield Road. He says the car reached speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.

He says the men ultimately bailed out.

Tallahassee, FL - November 1, 2012 - 11:59 am - Two men are on trial for a carjacking, kidnapping and robbery in Tallahassee and police say one of the men may have recorded some of it on his cell phone.

Bobby Graham and Richard Gibson are accused of committing the crimes on October 9, 2011.

Prosecutors say one of the video clips actually shows the men and the victim inside the victim's car. Prosecutors say other video clips show the men with guns yelling profanities.

Defense attorneys say Graham and Gibson are both in the rap music industry. Graham goes by the name "Bobcat" and Gibson goes by the name "Kat Fish Shawty." Graham's attorney says his client was videotaping a rap video in character. Gibson's attorney says there's no way to know if the video clips were even recorded that day.

Attorneys are still arguing over the admissibility of those videos. The judge has not decided yet whether the jury will get to see them.

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